1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to surface technologies relating to laminate flooring, and in particular surface technologies for enhancing the natural appearance of laminate flooring.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventional laminate flooring depicting an arrangement of square tiles made of a number of wooden strips running in different directions, such as a parquet pattern, attempts to provide a realistic looking laminate floor by providing a number of single piece, unitary laminate flooring planks the size of a single tile and arranging these single-tile planks together to make the floor pattern. When used in this context, tiles does not refer to ceramic tile, but is used to refer to generally to any substantially square shaped pattern element or group of elements that has sides equal to the width of the plank. This can include a square pattern made up of smaller strips having wood, marble or stone patterns.
In the related art, square planks the size of a single pattern tile are used because it is very difficult to make the boundary lines between tiles within a rectangular plank having a number of tiles look identical to and have an identical surface texture feel as the boundaries between adjacent planks.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, laminate flooring planks according to the related art are the size of the single tile. That single tile depicts wooden strips which may be bounded solely by dark lines in the pattern or by bevels. But the bevels within the plank around these wooden strips and the bevels around the edge of the plank are not the same size. Notably the bevels around the edges tend to be much wider than the bevels or dark lines in the interior of the plank. It is very easy to distinguish the plank edge bevels from the interior tile boundary bevels.
By producing square laminate flooring planks having only a single tile, it was acceptable for the boundary around a tile, which also serves as the boundary around the plank, to be different than the bevel lines within the tile pattern, because the different bevels were at least consistent—the bevels around a tile are one size whereas the bevels between the strips within the tile are another. In other words, even though the edge of the planks and the boundaries between planks were noticeable, it was acceptable as part of the design.
The problem is that because the plank boundaries are noticeably different than the bevels in the interior of the plank, it is obvious to the casual observer that flooring is made of square planks and not made of the individual wood strips depicted in the tile. In other words, it is obvious in this type of flooring that the planks are part of a laminate flooring system and are not real wood. This detracts from the appearance of the floor as well as the overall design.
Furthermore, reducing each plank to the size of only one tile makes the manufacturing processes considerably more expensive and the installation more time consuming, because more time is required to cut large boards into these smaller squares than to cut the larger rectangular planks which are more common in laminate flooring manufacturing. In addition, the rectangular planks are faster to install because each plank covers a greater surface area of the floor than the square planks. In effect, a floor that looks less realistic ends up costing more and taking longer to install.
What is needed is a laminate flooring system having the benefit of planks that depict more than one tile or decorative tile, but which has boundaries along the edges of the plank that are indistinguishable from the pattern boundary lines within the interior region of the plank.